Forum Improvements

ESP Brethren - As many may now know, we have been making some changes over the last few weeks to try and make the forum user experience better for existing and new members. We've listened to feedback, and will continue to refine the experience to be as good as it can be. A few things to note:

- There is no longer a 2000 point metric to hit before you can post photos or links, this can be done immediately at sign-up. Refer to my brief 'tutorial' on how to maximize photo use.

- The nesting has been limited to only one level so you will not see the previous level of deep nesting. This will keep conversations much easier to follow and participate in.

- In addition to the option to reply within someones post (I personally see this as useful), you have the ability to quote a post as well to create a new top-level post.

- The reply box has been moved to the bottom of the page to make it easier to read and respond to the latest post.

- The 'Read More' feature has been removed so you will see all posts in their entirety.

- The original post no longer appears at the top of subsequent pages within a thread.

I wonder how people know when there are new posts. I remember pretty much everything from the forum and memorize the current ammount of posts. Right now there are 2905 posts in general discussions so I use this as a reference so when I come back later and see the same number I know that no one has made a new post.

Some of the revisions were still being put into place when Dave the Mod posted. More are going into effect now (i.e., I just tried liking a comment and it didn't seem to bump the thread). Let us know if you run into any problems with the updated features.

Great changes. I do agree that replying directly to a post within a thread (I.E. one level nesting) is useful, but its definitely a separate use from actually quoting a post; so having both is great.

I really think that pretty much takes care of the bulk of what was making this place feel like slipping a child's mitten over a lumberjack fist. At this point I think if we get the traffic back up we just might be ok. And I suppose I'll add this back to the bookmarks on my laptop and start checking it more regularly again.

can we please have a link at the bottom of the page of any thread page, to take us back to the main forum / gen discussion etc, like the old boards. instead of having to scroll up or press back to get out. thanks

Actually one thing that still annoys me is not having a button to go to the last post in a thread. Especially when I'm on my phone, it can be a bear sometimes getting to the bottom of a thread just to read the one reply thats been posted. (call me lazy, i'll own it)